About the Course

The summer school consists of three courses/modules each of which requires an increasing level of knowledge of and experience in working with manuscripts. Each module is worth 5 ECTS credits, and is it therefore not possible to take more than one module each year.

2018 Summer School

1) Reading and Working with Manuscripts. A basic module, focusing on palaeography, codicology, manuscript description and transcription.

2) Theory and Practice of Scholarly Editing. An advanced module, focusing on editorial technique and the theory and practice of textual criticism; to qualify for the latter one must normally have successfully completed the former.

3) Preparing an Edition. A Master class for those who have completed the basic and advanced modules and want to try their hand at preparing an edition of a previously unedited text.

Workload

The workload amounts to a total of 140 hours, equalling 5 ECTS. This includes preparatory reading before the beginning of the summer school. A preparatory reading list will be accessible later on this website.

The schedules for the Basic and Advanced level will be accessible later on this website.

Upon successful completion of the summer school, participants will have obtained:

Knowledge and understanding of

Palaeography: different script types used in medieval and early modern Scandinavia (from Carolingian minuscule to Gothic types of scripts), their development, and their characteristic letter shapes

Abbreviations in written scripts, recognising them and expanding in a meaningful way

Codicology: describing a medieval codex, knowledge about the production of books in the Middle Ages and early modern times (the different stages and people involved)

Differences between West­Norse and East­Norse manuscripts and scripts

History of edition from traditional philology (Lachmann) via Bédier and Cerquiglini to New/Material philology

Skills in

Reading and transcribing texts in medieval scripts

Identifying different script types and giving a relative dating

Locating and identifying the numerous manuscript witnesses (copies) of a certain work

How to collate manuscripts for variants (variant apparatus)

How to make a stemma codicum

Competences in

Working with manuscripts in modern collections

Describing medieval manuscripts, their form and function

Theory and practice of scholarly editing

Technical realisation of edition work/project management

Preparing an edition of a previously unedited text

Examination

Students will be assessed throughout the courses, based on active student participation consisting of:

80% attendance of the total number of instruction classes

active participation in the discussions, assignments and group work during classes

final oral presentation usually in groups (Module 3/Master class only).